OSR Commentary On Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos By Rpg Pundit For OSR & Old School Campaigns

 "Dark Albion: Cults of Chaos is a gaming supplement for Dark Albion (also available on Createspace / Amazon), as well as most OSR fantasy-horror role-playing games. It will help you generate various Chaos Cults in detail (many tables are provided). It then describes the most common Chaos cults found in Albion (those worshiping demons, and others), gives advice on how running Chaos cults adventures (several tables are provided), and proposes three ready-to-use dungeons (i.e.: maps plus descriptions of contents for three dungeons that would be perfect for cultists lairs). This supplement is usable with any RPG of the OSR movement, such as Fantastic Heroes & Witchery (also available on Createspace / Amazon), Osric, Labyrinth Lord, etc."

Cults of Chaos by Rpg Pundit has been one of the most useful additions to my gaming libary over the years. Theres been plenty of times when this volume has come in very handy. 

All of the Pagan gods depicted within Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos are in some way or another touched by Chaos. A practice that over the years since Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos we've used for numerous OSR & old school campaigns. These cults are dangerous and very much not as much in the same vein as other old school games portray them. Take the Roman cult of Mithra according to Cults of Chaos it aligns with its wiki enty up to a point; "Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries or the Cult of Mithras, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linked to a new and distinctive imagery, with the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice debated.^[a] The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from about the 1st to the 4th-century CE.^[2]

Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".^[b] They met in underground temples, now called mithraea (singular mithraeum), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its center in Rome,^[3] and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far as Roman Dacia, as far north as Roman Britain,^{[4]: 26–27} and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east." 
While it is united by it's symbols, handshakes & signs as a 'mystery cult' or secret society Mithraic mysteries and such are still seen as a cult of chaos by the Sol Invictus. And they are dealt with accordingly. The setting a  of historical fantasy world set in England during the period of the War of the Roses ie. 1453-1485 is a very unforgiving place. 

And even the old Roman gods are looked on deeply with suspition & a side glance towards blatant Chaos worship. And it's these leanings that give Dark Albion's setting both it's unique flavor & the  Lion & Dragon rpg part of it's percision as an OSR game. 

The time of  the pre War of the Roses ie. 1453-1485 was supposed to be a place of new beginnings and happenings. The War of the Roses pushses that back to the background for an almost pseudo horror feel as the edges of the map take on sinister and dangerous connotations. All of the while the threat of Chaos looms in the background waiting to take on anyone stupid enough to fall to the various cults wiles. 

And within these cracks are where adventurers of all stripes ply their trade. The further reaches of exploration both historical & edged have their place with both Dark Albion & Lion & Dragon. 

Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos By Rpg Pundit  For OSR & Old School Campaigns Is Available Right Here.